page_title: Secularism
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Secularism / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: George Jacob Holyoake in later life. Русский: Джордж Якоб Холиок (1817—1906) — английский публицист и деятель рабочего движения введший в широкое употребление термины «секуляризм» (1851) и «шовинизм» (1878).
context_page_description: Secularism may refer to any worldview or principle which defines the secular at a given context, and prioritizes, justifies or promotes it over the non-secular. "Secularism" has a broad range of meaning. While its definition as the separation of religion from civic affairs and the state is the most common, it may connote anticlericalism, atheism, naturalism, banishment of religious symbols from the public sphere and much more.
  As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life on principles taken solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards "temporal" and material concerns.
  In political terms, secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. There are distinct traditions of secularism in the West, like the French and Anglo-American models, and beyond, as in India, where the emphasis is more on tolerance for all religions rather than separation.
context_section_description: The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Holyoake in 1851. Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."
  Secularism may be categorized into two types, "hard" and "soft". "Hard" secularism considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate and seeks to deny them as much as possible. The "soft" variety emphasizes tolerance and liberalism.
caption: The British writer George Holyoake (1817–1906) coined the term "secularism" in 1851[7]
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